Electronic Ink
by eoraptor
Summary: Old cases for Darkwing coincide with an awkward time in Gosalyn Mallard's life, leading to tension for everyone. Just how do you define family when one parent leds a doulbe identity, and the other parental figures either are monsters or Launchpad McQuack?
1. Chapter 1

_**Electronic Ink**_

_By Eoraptor_

_AN: set after the TV series, and including some events from the Boom Studios Comic. DarkWing Duck and associated characters created by Tad Stones and are property of The Walt Disney Company._

* * *

"Director Grizzlikof, Darkwing Duck is here for his appointment." Buzzed the old fashioned intercom.

"Let him wait. Noodenut Duck is fourty-seven seconds early or his appointed timings."

"That's where you're wrong, Grizz old boy," A cloud of dark blue smoke exploded in one corner of the wood paneled office of the director of S.H.U.S.H. "I'm always on time! And it's about time you called…"

"Darkwing Duck!" the great, slightly greying bear spun and glared on the spot, only for the smoke to dissipate, revealing nothing.

"Director Vladimir Goudenov Grizzlikof, huh?" Darkwing appeared standing next to the desk behind the bear, reading and flipping the name plaque of the director of the super-secret super-spy agency, "You know, never knew your full name, even after being stuck on the moon with you for a week."

The massive director snorted and snatched his name plaque from his guest, "Da. Regulations strictly prohibit revealing of personally identifiable information to those lacking clearance sales."

"Grizz Grizz Grizz…" the darksome duck chided, "After all we've been through together? But, I know how you are about schedules… so, why'd you call me here after all these years? I haven't heard from S. .H. since J. Gander retired."

"Da. Former Director's policies required much reexamining, particularly after incompetent bungling of Quackwerks robots infiltration." The Russian bear crossed his arms over his chest and snorted, causing papers on his desk three feet away to flutter. "You are not here as constituent."

"Consultant."

"Da, is what I said, constituent." The big man confirmed ignorantly. "You are here because of involvement of former agents with you. Agent Appeal, you may be coming in please."

Darkwing looked over at the opposite door, and could practically hear the sultry saxophone music accompaniment as Agent Femme Appeal entered. The vulpine secret agent was the very definition of sexy female secret double agents, from her thick British accent to the black body suit she wore. The mighty masked mallard found himself momentarily gobsmacked.

"Ah, Darkwing Duck," She smiled as she shook the dumbstruck duck's hand before leaning on the director's desk suggestively, "It's been a while."

"Ye ya, yuhuh…" Darkwing finally got his faculties back together and shook his head out, "It has. You kind of disappeared after the whole Duckthulu incident."

"What can I say, it's what we spies do best," the foxy agent shook her head with a smile, "But I'm afraid I asked to have you called here. Took us quite a bit to locate that flashquack gadget of yours too."

"Oh, hehe, yeah… most people just call me or beep me these days," Darkwing rubbed his head through his hat, and the bump there where the miniature jet plane had clocked him on arriving a few hours earlier.

"Yes, just like my niece Kimberly. In any event," Femme nodded as she picked up a folder of papers, "I want you to make a delivery for me."

"Now you wait just a minute!" Darkwing's dander instantly went up, "Why is it that whenever S.H.U.S.H. calls, you want to treat me like a messenger boy? First it was Oompas, then it was Norma Rays; now what is it? I am the terror that flaps in the night, not the ducking Postal Service!"

Eyebrows went up at the outburst as Darkwing continued to fume before the fox and bear.

"Boisterous duck will find out, if you will just Be Quiet." Director Grizzlikof shook his head irritably vibrating the room with a growl.

"Your young friend Gosalyn Mallard is turning sixteen soon, isn't she luv?" Femme picked up the file and tapped it against her free hand as she watched the arrogant duck.

"Gosa… Yes… yes she is, why?" Darkwing's suspicions instantly arose. What did the spy agency want with his daughter? At least they didn't seem to know she was his daughter.

"And Gosalyn was born Gosalyn Waddlemeyer, da?" Grizzlikof added as he returned to his seat.

"Ye- yes…" Again the masked mallard looked between the two super spies.

"I'm sorry I wasn't able to stop Ovis Hannigan when I had the chance… if I'd have known just how… unstable… all those blows to the head had made him, I would have blown my cover to put the brute down." The brunette fox narrowed her eyes at unseen memory.

"Stop him? Cover?" by now the vigilante was thoroughly confused. "Hammerhead Hannigan? What's he got to do with the price of tea in China?"

"One of Special Agent Appeal's assignments was in infiltrating Taurus Bolva's organization. It was how he was originally apprehended and his criminal underworld dismantled." Grizzliof nodded as he rapped his clawed fingers on his desk.

"Yeah, and then F.O.W.L. resurrected him after I cleaned up that mess… Oh, and then there's the little matter of taking over all of St. Canard for over a year with Quackwerks." The terror of the night sniped as a sensitive subject was touched.

"Ye- yes… all those things. You see. Hannigan was responsible for the death of Doctor Anatidae Waddlemeyer. As well as… well… Give this to your friend Gosalyn. It explains everything." The curvaceous agent handed the folder to Darkwing.

"Why in the word would I give Gosalyn a folder full of bad news?" Darkwing glared at the spy.

"Because," the vivacious vulpine shook her head "Her parents would want her to know about it. And I promised them she would when she was old enough."

"Her pa- her pare… her…" the masked mallard moved instantly to open the file and look inside.

The director of S.H.U.S.H. reached out with one massive paw and snatched the vigilante off the floor, causing him to drop the folder, "That is not for your eyes, Duck. Either give to leetle girl, or leave here."

"Erk! Okay OKAY! I'll give to leetle girl- erm Gosalyn!" Darkwing flailed at the iron grip of the Russian bear.

"Good, then our business is concluded." The bear put the mangled mallard back on his feet and straightened his own suit.

_**-DwD-**_

"What in the world would S.H.U.S.H. know about Gosalyn's family?" Darkwing eyed with dubious attention the bright red folder sitting in the sidecar of the rat catcher. "I mean, I know that Doctor Waddlemeyer was working for the military when he built the ramrod, and S.H.U.S.H. specializes in weird weapons, but this? And her parents…?"

"Hey DW," Launchpad looked up from his usual perch beneath the body of the Thunderquack jet, "Sure was weird, getting clocked by the flashquack like that, what did S.H.U.S.H. want?"

"Um… I'm not really… it's sorta…" the defender of the darkness fumbled, still a bit shocked by anything relating to the tragedies surrounding his adopted daughter's biological family.

"Hey Dad!" came the enthusiastic greeting from the girl in question as she bounded down the ladder from the computer platform , her game of Wiffle Crisis 360 paused on the giant display. "What did old Grizzlepuss want anyway?"

"Oh! Gosalyn!" Darkwing snatched the folder quickly out of view behind his great purple fedora, concealing it from the spirited teen, "Um… just some back pay from some old adventures, you now how Grizzlikof is with his paperwork."

"Yeah, that bruin could make Honker feel uncomfortable about accuracy, and that's sayin' something." She snorted and crossed her arms over her hockey jersey. Say, Can I take the Ratcatcher out?"

Darkwing was thrilled for the change of topics and pounced on it like a rabid mongoose on a slinky, "Young Lady! You know the Darkwing Vehicles are strictly for Darkwing Business Only! And for another thing, the last thing I need is for the world to find out that you're my daughter if you get caught joyriding in my things!"

"But Dad!" Gosalyn stamped her foot petulantly, "It's not like you're ever around to give me driving lessons in the station wagon! You're always off saving the city from something or other!"

"She's right, DW," Launchpad popped his head up and into the discussion, "You've ducked out of a lot of chances to teach Gosalyn to drive ever since she got her permit."

Suddenly the masked mallard didn't feel quite so glad for the topic change as he was hit from both sides. "But, but I… I just."

"and another thing!" the redhead continued, "Honker already has a car fund! I don't even have a piggy bank! And if you think I'm going to drive the Mallard family truckster to school…!"

"Well Honker also has an IQ of 154 and an investment portfolio," Darkwing countered, "How that boy came from Muddlefoot stock I'll never know, incidentally…"

"But! But!" Gosalyn whined.

"But nothing!" Darkwing continued, "Honker works hard for his money. If you had half his responsibility, you could buy any car in St. Canard."

"I'll bet Morgana would help me get the money for a car…" the teen huffed, sniffing indignantly.

"Morgana isn't any better with money than you are," the mallard asserted, and then looked around since saying things like that tended to get a lightning bolt or yak to drop on him.

Fortunately, the curvaceous sorceress was apparently not listening in on the astral plane at the moment, as no mystical mischief befell him.

"Why not a part time job?" he offered to placate his daughter, still keeping the red S.H.U.S.H. folder hidden until he decided what to do with it.

"As if!" the gosling snorted irritably, "In this economy? What do you think I'd do, sell Quackerware? It comes over the counter now you know!"

Before he could get another word in, his teenaged daughter spun on her heel and scurried back up the ladder to her game in a huff.

"Gee, DW," Launchpad looked at the crestfallen hero, "I mean… even my dad helped me get my first plane."

"I know Launchpad…" the mighty mallard looked up at the violent videogame as it resumed exploding on the giant monitor, "But it's already hard hiding where my money comes from as Drake Mallard. If I tried to fill out an auto loan, things would _really_ start to get complicated. It's not like I don't_ want_ Gos to have everything other little girls have."

"Except that you do…" the big pilot quietly added to no one, "and except that shes' not so little any more."

_**-DwD-**_

Several hours later, the red folder from S.H.U.S.H. sat abandoned on a table in the Audubon Bay Bridge tower. A breeze rolled in through the open parapets and flipped it open, revealing piles of pictures of a pair of young spy geese, as well as dozens of printed pages stamped [classified] in brilliant red. At least, the pages were stamped like that for a moment.

In the darkness, even if anybird were there to see, it would have been difficult to tell in the darkness of the quiet tower, one of the pictures suddenly rippled and pulled. The glossy lamination of the antiqued photo peeled away of its own volition and crawled away from the folder, along with the red stamped letters. They crawled off of the table and disappeared into a shadow, where a low pitched chuckle began to echo around the tower and the shadows to shift and swirl as though made of wet paint.

* * *

_AN: My first Darkwing Duck fic... I remember watching the very first premier of this show WAYYYYYY back in the stone age of the early nineties as a kid, a special primetime Friday premier on ABC. I still watch it a lot, keeping it on a shuffle for noise in the background. __ Femme Appeal is, of course, based on agent Emma Peele from The Avengers. She comes from the most recent Darkwing Duck comics from Boom Studios. If you haven't picked up on it already, this story takes place a few years after the tv show, giving us not only an adult Gosalyn, but things not shown in the original TV seriese like cell phones, and the internet._


	2. Chapter 2

_**Electronic Ink**_

_Chapter 2_

_By Eoraptor_

_AN: set after the TV series, and including some events from the Boom Studios Comic. DarkWing Duck and associated characters created by Tad Stones and are property of The Walt Disney Company._

* * *

"But Gosalyn, are you sure we should…?" Herbert Muddlefoot Junior, Honker to pretty much everybody, questioned as he crept along behind the girl through the alleys adjacent to Audubon Bay Park.

The teen shushed him, as was usual in their ritual of 'plan, whine, argue, accept,' "Dad told me to make my own money, so that's what I'm doing. Besides, it's not like this is dangerous or anything…"

"No, chasing down King Crab and the Shells Angels for a bounty, how could that be dangerous?" the allergic goose rolled his eyes, "They're only wanted in three states."

"and not wanted in all the rest," Gosalyn confirmed with a smart nod, "Hence the bounty. Besides, we deal with super-villains and mutants all the time; what's a couple of bikers?"

"Your dad deals with super-villains and mutants." Honker corrected, tugging his pants up since he continued to grow upwards, but not outwards, and no one made Ganders pants with twenty-six inch waists. "We're just kids."

"Hey, you and I took down Negaduck when we were ten…" the redheaded gosling pointed out as they crept up to the back door of the biker bar. "I'd say that counts…. Now get ready."

Honker sighed and shook his head. Clearly Gosalyn was set on course, and he wasn't going to talk her out of it. Just like her dad. If it wasn't that she was a goose and Darkwing a duck, Honker would be certain that they were family by blood rather than by circumstance. They acted just alike, egotistical and proud to the point of vanity, brash enough to blindly charge in where angels feared to tred, but with a core of inner righteousness.

"One… Two… Three!" The teen trouble maker tossed the gas canister into the bar.

And promptly yeowled as it burned her hand, alerting every large shelled biker to their presence instantly.

"Yeouch! Now I see why dad uses a gun with these stupid things!" Gosalyn flapped her hand and tried to ease the sting, unaware that she had blown their cover.

"Gosa- Gos… Gosalyn…"

The named girl swatted Honker's tugging hands away from her shoulder as she checked her fingers for damage, "Shhhh, Honker, you're going to give us away… now we just need to sneak in there and grab Crab and…

"And What?" came a slightly moist challenge, as the aforementioned leather-clad crustacean strode out of the billowing smoke and right at the teenagers.

"and… and… And sell him a nice box of webbyscout cookies!" The suddenly nervous girl improvised in the face of the hard-boiled biker.

"Ain't you a little old to be selling webbyscout cookies, girl?" the lobster mobster cracked his claws as he looked at the teenagers.

"Well, just trying to pad out the car fund!" Gosalyn answered semi-earnestly with a big grin.

"Hey, I know that kid!" one of the adjunct bikers jeered, "She's always hanging around with Darkwing Duck! Get 'er!"

"Oh geeesh!" Gosalyn grumbled and ducked a few swings that appeared out of nowhere and aimed to take off her head. "Honker, why didn't the gas grenade work?"

The gangly goose ducked under claw swipes of his own and scurried along the floor, picking up the gas cartridge, which had cooled off quickly, "Because this is just some smoke… I thought you were grabbing the sleeping gas one!"

"So sue me!" the redhead ducked and dodged, and managed to get in a few swings of her own which bounced harmlessly off of crustacean carapaces, "You know Darkwing never labels the stupid things!"

Honker simply nodded, since it was not uncommon for the masked hero to occasionally gas a madman with laughing gas if he forgot what order his gas gun cartridges were loaded in. He grabbed at the spindly legs of a nearby lobster biker and yanked, upsetting several of the hardened criminals in a domino effect . "Come on! We need to get out of here!"

"Like heck!" Gosalyn barked back as she continued ducking and weaving, "Not without my bounty money!"

"But Gosalyn!" Honker yelped in protest. He was snatched up by Crab and had to grab his pants to keep them along for the ride.

"Hey! You put him down you over-grown prawn star!" She jeered at the lobster leader of the Shells Angels. Gosalyn's punches and kicks, while surprisingly skilled, were still being thrown by a five foot tall teenage girl against a seven and a half foot tall armor plated biker; and King Crab laughed off the blows.

"What, are you going to make me?" the crustacean smirked, antenna waving as he hoisted the slender teen boy higher in the air, preparing for a not-so-graceful coup'de'gras .

"No… I am…" came an ominous growl from everywhere at once and nowhere at all, "I am the terror that flaps in the night. I am the melted butter that stains your tie… I… am… _**DARKWING DUCK!"**_

A violent explosion of blue smoke filled the space atop the bar, and Gosalyn took advantage of the distraction to grab Honker out of Crab's claws. The two quickly hightailed it out of the melee, not out of fear of further trouble from the bikers, but out of fear of what was going to happen after the bikers were inevitably subdued.

Unfortunately, the teens plowed right into Launchpad McQuack's broad chest as he came in the front door.

"Whoa there, what are you two doing here?" he scratched the top of his head in confusion, "I thought you said you were going to go make some money."

"I was!" she groused, having kept her feet and held Honker up when he bounced harder than she, "I didn't count on Dad showing up and stealing my bounty!"

"But Gosalyn," Honker corrected "If it wasn't for your dad, we'd be lobster bait!"

"Speaking of that young lady," came an irritated admonishment from behind them. Apparently thirty seconds was all the masked mallard had needed to subdue the bar full of bikers, "Bounty hunting? Couldn't you have picked a less dangerous profession? Like, I dunno… bomb disposal?"

Gosalyn withered under her father's masked glare, "Um… hi dad! Funny meeting you here?"

"Yeah, a regular laugh riot," Darkwing sneered, "We are going home, and you are going to explain to me just why you thought attacking a bar full of armor plated bikers was a good idea. You're not even old enough to be in here! I better not find a fake ID on you!"

_**-DwD-**_

Fortunately, _home_, in this case, was Darkwing Tower just up the hill and then up the bridge cable, so they were not all four crammed into the Ratcatcher's small confines for very long. Unfortunately it was just enough time for the redheaded teenage girl to get righteously indignant over having her plans to make money thwarted so embarrassingly.

"How could you do that?!" She barked s she peeled her helmet off, "You're the one who told me to go out and make some money!"

"I never told you to walk into a bar and roust out thirty armed crustaceans!" Darkwing retorted, throwing his own helmet away as the platform lowered them all down to the main floor of the lair, "Do you have any idea how dangerous that is?!"

"Uh… is that crustaceans with thirty arms, or thirty crustaceans with no arms, or…? Launchpad quickly became confused, but was safely led out of the discussion by Honker tugging him clear of the Rat Catcher.

"Well then Let's _Get_ Dangerous, dad!" Gosalyn shot back, "Isn't that what you're always saying?!"

"There's dangerous, and then there's suicidal! What if I hadn't been there?!"

"Oh how is that any different from the time you through yourself into a pile of Fowl Eggmen just to get Steelbeak's pocket comb as evidence?!"

"Because it's different! I'm trained to do this sort of thing!"

"and I'm not?! I have three blackbelts you know!"

"You're just a girl! I don't want you to get hurt out there doing mans' work!"

Gosalyn took a breath, but the teenager's ire didn't seem to be spent yet. "I can do anything you can do! Only better! I'm not some little girl to be told what's safe and what's not! I had everything under control until you showed up to be a big fat heroism hog and stole my money from me!"

"You did not have everything under control!" Darkwing charged back, "You could have gotten Honker and yourself killed tonight! King Crab would have chopped you up and dumped you in the bay. Fighting crime is work for costumed heroes and their sidekicks, not for impetuous little girls."

"That's not what Morgana would say!"

"Morgana is not your parent!"

"And you're not either!"

Even the crashing sea below the bay bridge seemed to fall silent at that angry declaration. Darkwing stumbled back as if struck. "Gosalyn…"

"No!" the teenager spat angrily. "I'm tired of all the double standards stuff! You don't get to be my dad when you want to and be a masked marauder when that gets too boring! Come on Honker! We're leaving!"

She grabbed her besty and ran out of the tower's main room before anyone could think to stop her, leaving Launchpad and Darkwing to look at each other confusedly and somewhat ashamedly.

_**-DwD-**_

The two teens walked out of the hidden foot entrance of the tower and back to the Audubon Bay Park district to collect their ride. The ride home on the back of Honker's scooter was quiet, especially since it was an electric one that made no noise.

"That was a really mean thing to say, Gosalyn," Honker finally, quietly, admonished her as they pulled into the suburban neighborhood.

"Well… well he deserved it! It's not fair!" she protested as she held onto her best friend against the potholes.

"No he didn't…" the normally timid gander challenged. "he saved out bb- butts tonight."

"Yeah, after I did exactly what he told me to do!" Gosalyn sneered. "It's not like we were in any _real_ danger! I mean… so I didn't have any gadets, or a costume… hey! A costume! That's what was different!"

Honker sighed as his best friend's logic went askew. "No Gosalyn, that's not what was different!"

"Yeah yeah it was! I didn't have a gadget, or any witty repartee, no themed identity to protect my loved ones!" She hopped off of the scooter in front of the Mallard residence and leaned over, pecking Honker on the cheek, "Thanks Honk! That's just what I needed to hear!"

The poor bespectacled boy was so stunned by the intimate contact that he didn't think to protest as his friend ran up the path and into the house, presumably raise more mischief.

_**-DwD-**_

"I'm not her father! As if!" Darkwing ranted as he ripped off his cape and stormed up the ladder towards the command center, "We'll just see who is!"

Launchpad dutifully followed, confused by the turn the nascent rant was taking, "Now come on, DW, You know she didn't mean it! Gos is just upset."

"Oh I'll give her upset! We'll see how upset she is when she's grounded for a year!" the caped crusader barked as he grabbed up the red folder, "Wait, I didn't leave this open… Launchpad?"

"Leave what open?" the pilot turned sidekick looked up in confusion as he dismounted the ladder. "Is that what S.H.U.S.H. gave you?"

"You mean you didn't open it?" Darkwing turned to the big duck.

"I've never seen it before." He held up his hands defensively.

"Well if you didn't open it… and I didn't… Oh no… You don't suppose Gosalyn saw what was in here?!"

"What _is_ in there?" Launchpad questioned.

"Let's find out…"

* * *

_AN: Yes, King Crab is actually not a crab at all, but a lobster. He's probably the closest thing you'll see to an OC in this fic, so enjoy him since he's just a throwaway joke. I'm not a huge fan of making OC's for my stories unless there's absolutely no canon character that can fill a particular role. And thank you to the folks __**Reviewing and Favouriting **__the story. Remember, __**REVIEWS EQUAL LOVE**_


	3. Chapter 3

**_Electronic Ink_**

_Chapter 3_

_By Eoraptor_

_AN: set after the TV series, and including some events from the Boom Studios Comic. DarkWing Duck and associated characters created by Tad Stones and are property of The Walt Disney Company._

* * *

Gosalyn opened the secret door in her closet and peered inside. Within was arrayed a broad and colorful variety of clothes that would be more at home in the closet of a ten year old boy, not a fifteen year old girl. The black gaucho, bandana, and cape of The Crimson Quackette, her first costumed adventure. Next to that, the stained green sponge which had cleaned her of the chemicals which had turned her into the mold monster, Yucky Duck!. There was also the silvered visor of her short time as GosmoDuck, and her Darkwing Duck fanclub cape and mask. Of course there was also the armor and helmet of her stint as The Grub, side kick to the nefarious Bianca "Bugmaster" Beakley. The vest of the True Outdoors Person that still had the robot bear's clawmarks on it too. And finally, the green pointed Robin Duck hat and quiver of her most successful outings as Quiverwing Quack.

Man she'd worn a lot of hats and capes over the years!

Gos pulled out the stylish red and black cape of the Quackette and threw it around her shoulders as she pondered what her newest masked identity was to be. It was then that she realized that there was a problem here…

Almost all of her costumes were from several years ago. The cape which had once dramatically brushed the ground now only came to her bottom, making it look comically undersized and coquettish on her. Not the look to strike terror into the hearts of criminals.

She had always thought it was just an excuse to put on cool clothes that no one else could get away with wearing. After all, her father was a very theatrical and egotistical wafflehead. But after tonight she had realized that Dad was right; criminals were a cowardly and superstitious lot. She and he were about the same size, and he wasn't _that_ much stronger than she was, numerous wrestling matches over cleaning her room proved that. Yet he had wiped out a bar full of hardened bikers in thirty seconds when she hadn't even been able to put one of them on his tail.

Gos sighed. She needed help coming up with a suitably terrifying look to strike terror into the hearts and minds of the criminal element. Well, she knew one person who was an expert in the terrifying and… macabre.

"Morgana!" She called out into the air of her room.

As she had promised, Morgana Macawber always came when Gosalyn needed her. In a moment, in an explosion of blood red smoke and lightning and the alarmed screeching of disturbed bats, the witch lover of Darkwing Duck appeared in the teen's bedroom, smiling, black lipstick adorning her pale beak, "Yes Dear?"

Gos smiled and seized her dad's girlfriend in a tight hug. Then she sniffed and made a face, "You were working, weren't you?"

The feminine warlock demurely sniffed under her tammers and blushed, smelling the scorpion tar-tar on her, "Er, yes… but you called, and the Shadow Chateau can mind itself for a bit. Archie and Globby will keep Aunt Nasty from devouring any of the diners."

Gosalyn giggled and shook her head, combing her red hair back over the shortened cloak, "I need your help alright! All my costumes are way too small, but I need a new look to strike fear and panic into criminals!"

"Oooooh I've so longed for the day when you would come to me for fashion advice," the sorceress clapped excitedly.

"I ask your advice all the time!" Gos stamped her foot and protested.

"Eh, not when it's not Halloween or opening night of Bloody Zombie Apocalypse XIII," Morgana complained with an over-wrought sigh, lifting a palm dramatically to her forehead. "But, let's see what we have to work with…"

The witch looked amongst the arrayed costumes and smiled, fingering the piece that Gos was wearing, "Oh, I love that cape! So feisty and playful!"

"That's not what I was going for…" the teen snorted as she yanked the satin cape out of Morgana's grasp.

"Well, er…" Morgana considered a moment, looking around again, "Did you have some ideas?"

"Well," Gos grabbed the pointed Robin Duck hat out of the closet and perched it on her head, "Quiverwing Quack was respected, adored even… and I am a mean girl with a bow and arrow!"

She grabbed the recurve bow from its rack next to the quiver only to find it, too, comically undersized to her new, pubescent body. She let go a sigh dramatic enough to match Morgana's and shrugged her shoulders.

"Hmmmm," the darksome woman pondered the teen and perched a delicately manicured black nail to her beak, "I remember… you were very good, if a bit… amateur in costume…"

"Amateur!?" the redheaded girl challenged, "I cut a very dashing swath!"

"Dear, you wore a hat and cape over your four year old hockey jersey, and your sidekick had a bicycle helmet with a paper arrowhead taped to it." The witch condescended coolly.

Gos sank at that and sighed.

She plucked the pointed green hat from Gosalyn's brow and pondered it, "Not green though, dear… if Aunt Nasty taught me one thing; it was never wear a dress the same color as your eyes, it will do nothing for your come-hither stare. Still, the concept has potential… archers, highwaymen, masked assassins of the middle ages…"

She twirled her fingertip in the air and the various costumes in the closet began to sway. As Gosalyn watched, they began to dismount from their shelves and hangers, whirling around one another with increasing speed. "Keen Gear! Psychic wardrobe!"

It was _very_ keen, up until the magical whirlwind began moving towards her. Gos backed up uncertainly as the capes' various edges whipped and snapped at her. Before she got two steps, however, the green and purple cloak of Quiverwing Quack succeeded in grabbing one of her hands and yanking her, screaming, inside the magical tempest.

**_-DwD-_**

By the time Dawn arose across the Audubon River and Bay, Darkwing was certain of a few things… Firstly, S.H.U.S.H.'s reach extended a lot further than he had ever suspected, just based on the un-redacted bits of the file, which wasn't much. Secondly, Special Agent Henry Waddlemeyer, Gosalyn's Father, was obviously where a lot of her attitude came from. He was a regular James Pond, had even interned with Derek Blunt. Reprimanded several times for risk taking and insubordination, as if the comb of brilliant red hair wasn't enough of a hint.

Though he differed from Pond and Blunt in one way, he seemed utterly devoted to his young wife Veronica Edmontus nee' Waddlemeyer, a duckbilled Canadian and where Gos's blaze-green eyes and burgeoning height had come from. The file painted a picture of a typical secret agent family… Daddy Waddlemeyer introduced son Henry to alluringly brainy young assistant Veronica; young assistant falls for dashing secret agent; marriage, espionage, and child ensue.

From there, everything took a tragically predictable lurch to the left. The young parents were killed in a heartbreakingly suspicious car accident, one caused by forces in the employ of the criminal elements of St Canard whom Henry had crossed during his S.H.U.S.H. career. The infant Gosalyn was placed in the care of her grandfather, Doctor Waddlemeyer, where she was raised until the age of eight; when he too was killed, by Ovis Hannigan, under the order of Taurus Bulba in the first attempt to secure the Ramrod.

And then Gosalyn Waddlemeyer had passed into the care of the St. Canard Orphanage where she, too, was abducted and threatened with death by an egomaniacal criminal mastermind; and finally to the care of "Drake Mallard," Darkwing's civilian alter-ego. Of course this last fact wasn't listed in the file, nor was it likely hidden under the redacted sections. From there the file listed various of Gosalyn's Darkwing-adventures and correctly posited her identity as Quiverwing Quack.

Darkwing dropped the folder back to the table and sighed, shaking his head. Hollywood wouldn't even accept such a story; they'd call it implausibly tragic. One little girl, not even the age of ten for most of it, exposed to so much death and tragically tumultuous and tedious… tradgedy.

"Hey DW, breakfast?" Launchpad popped his head up and offered up some Hamburger Hippo late night takeout.

Darkwing accepted the warm apple flavoured pie substitute from the bag and munched on it without interest as he looked at the files. Some of them had smeared pages it seemed, as though something had been dragged across them when the ink was still wet, taking it along for the ride. H shook off the thought and considered the files as a whole.

"Oh, what am I gonna do, Launchpad?" he bemoaned as he drew his fingers over the red cover of the folder, "Gos's old family is such a touchy subject, and this? This makes it all worse!"

"Well, DW," the big duck answered around bites of his cheese-food-product burger, "I think we all learned a lesson during the Steerminator Incident…"

"Yeah, Gos will find a way to stick her nose in no matter how much you try to protect her…" He sighed succinctly.

"No, that's not what I meant," Launchpad tried to correct his pal.

"And she'll steal anything she needs to do it… Like the hoverquack assault chair."

LP rolled his eyes and shook his head, but couldn't respond with his mouth full of artificial additives.

"Well, we'll just keep this one locked away where even she can't get to it!" DW grabbed the red file, shoveled all of its contents back inside, and walked to a hatch on the wall.

He pressed a button and waited as a red light lit up. After a moment's waiting, an oven-like ding sounded and he opened it, "I learned my lesson after Bushroot took the wall-safe from the house, LP… this baby couldn't be moved by Superpig himself!"

He slipped the folder into the new safe, and then pushed the button. There was a grinding and after another long moment, the button turned red again and then winked out. "It drops all the way down to the sea bed and the pilings under the bridge. With all that water pressure, not even Neptunia could open it!"

"DW, I really think you should just give Gos the folder!" Launchpad tried to caution.

"Not on your life, LP! She's at a very sensitive point in her life right now, and I'm not going to let her be driven over the edge by bad news!" Darkwing crossed his arms under his cape with finality.

**_-DwD-_**

After a long dizzy spin, Gosalyn stumbled free of the magical whirlwind and grabbed her still-spinning head. She blinked because there was something, or several layers of something, between her hand and her forehead.

Looking up, she found her hand encased in a blood-red leather glove. Blinking, she looked down at herself. Her entire body was covered in red leather. "Buh?"

"Take a moment to gain your center, dear," Morgana cautioned in her usual silky voice, nodding. She snapped a finger and a dressing mirror made its way across the room as she waited for Gosalyn to settle down.

Shaking her head again to clear it, Gos looked in the mirror and gasped. Indeed she was covered in red leather… a new costume had formed itself around her body, thick blood-red leather with brighter red accents formed a sort of body-armor all over her, including gloves and boots. Her face was cloaked from just above the bill to her hair line in a black bandana, disguising her features in the finest vigilante tradition. Every inch of her was cloaked from neck to webbed toes.

And speaking of cloaked… A huge theatrical cloak hung down her back, and piled at the neck. Reaching back, she tugged at the pile and found it was a hood. Pulling it up, she became a hooded highway woman, only her beak and her green eyes shining out from the shadows of the hood.

Taking it in, she flapped her arms, tossing the cloak back a bit. Perched under one arm like a cane was her recurve bow, upsized now into a full adult bow, its old foam rubber grip replaced by more red leather. Next to it, strapped to her thigh, was her quiver, black as night against her new red costume.

She was surprised to find something new on the opposite thigh; it looked like an assault rifle. Gripping the handle, she pulled up and outwards. With a slick mechanical noise, the package unfolded itself to reveal a collapsing crossbow, complete with bolts ringing her thigh in a black bandoleer. "Keen Gear!"

Looking up to the magically summoned mirror, Gosalyn considered herself. She cut an incredibly rakish swath in the long cloak, with a bow on one side and a crossbow in the other hand. Studying her shadowy figure for a long moment, she suddenly remembered what Morgana had said, "Wow… you were right, my eyes totally pop with all this black and red!"

Morgana smiled, black lipstick outlining her lightly fanged grin, "Indeed… green eyes are always the fiercest… but turn around, look at your back."

Gosalyn did as instructed, turning to look over her shoulder at her back in the mirror. It was a bit awkward with the hood, but she accomplished it. The long back of the red cloak was not plain. Instead it was embroidered with a pair of feathered wings all the way down, called out in slightly darker maroon thread over the crimson of the cloak.

"Radical!"

"Indeed… Quiver_wing_ Quack needs wings after all, doesn't she?" Morgana nodded knowingly as Gos continued to turn this way and that, taking in her disguise. "I've enchanted the costume. Even though it's heavy padded leather, you'll never be too hot or too cold; even if you dive into the bay in January or try to walk across Oilrabia…"

"Awesome!" Gosalyn gave the crossbow an artful spin and a flick, and it automatically collapsed itself back down and clicked into its heavy holster.

"But that's the only enchantment. Everything else is you, just like your father. You'll have to be your own hero my dear."

Gos nodded, her face tightening into a firm grin to match the fearsome swath she cut. Then she spun and grabbed the sorceress into a tight hug, "Oh thank you thank you thank you!"

Morgana hugged the disguised teen back firmly, hiding her warm smile in the folds of the cloak. Finally getting ahold of those disgusting warm feelings, she leaned back and considered the girl, "What about Honker? Do you think he will want a new costume of his own?"

Gos chewed her lower lip and thought. The last time Honk had been The Arrow Kid had been over five years ago. It had ended when he turned on her, intending to turn her over to her dad for going after Negaduck. She had blasted him with a net arrow and run off into the night, only to find just the trouble he had predicted.

"I- I dunno... I'll… I'll have to find out…" She frowned as she pulled back the hood, scrubbing her gloved fingers awkwardly through her short red hair.

"Well, even if he doesn't want to again become The Arrow Kid, I think he's going to like your new look," Morgana purred, smirking wryly as the sun broke the horizon and poured through the window, picking out the grain of the armor-like leather.

"You think?" Gos gripped the cloak again and executed a spin.

Morgana shook her head slightly, tisking to herself. Gos was fingering the hardware and gadgets as she wondered about what Honker would think of it; but Morgana was actually thinking about the way the red leather clung to Gosalyn's lithe teenage body. Clearly there were still some things they were worlds apart on. Perhaps it was Gosalyn's environment, growing up in a household of men, or perhaps it was simply her tomboy nature… but sometimes Morgana wished she was around more often for the girl these past few years. There were simply some things the teen didn't seem to quite grasp.

"Now, why don't you go try out your new look. I dropped a few of your father's gas capsules into your quiver until you can get your own." She grinned playfully, winking at her teenaged ward.

Gosalyn bounded to the window and opened it, perching dramatically for a moment in the morning light before firing her cantilevered grappling arrow across the street to Honker's bedroom window with a soft twang and swinging with aplomb across the street.

As Morgana turned away, she smirked to herself. She hadn't told Gosalyn the whole truth about her new "look." There was one more enchantment on it, one the sorceress intended to make full use of in the days to come to make sure that the hot-headed teen stayed safe.

* * *

_AN: Well, that's the end of chapter 3… who didn't see this coming, who did? _

_As to Gosalyn's parents, I seriously toyed with the idea of having her mother be another sister to Binkie and Trudi, because after all, Honker's brains have to come from _somewhere_. But I realized that that introduced several complications to the story, such as why Gos didn't end up with one of them after her parents were killed. And also, of course, that it would make Honker and Gosalyn cousins, which would complicate some of their interactions… _

_Feel free to read, review, comment… fan art if you like…_

_And remember __**Reviews equal Love**_


	4. Chapter 4

**_Electronic Ink_**

_Chapter 4_

_By Eoraptor_

_AN: set after the TV series, and including some events from the Boom Studios Comic. DarkWing Duck and associated characters created by Tad Stones and are property of The Walt Disney Company._

* * *

"That was _waaaaaay_ too easy," Quiverwing Quack shook her head as she retrieved her cantilevered pulley arrow and closed the window behind her. "You'd think a guy who's smarter than most of the population of St. Canard, and a known associate of Darkwing Duck would know enough to lock his window at night…"

She walked away across the bedroom and shook Honker in his bed, "Hey Honk, wake up I got something to show you."

When that didn't get much more than a grumbling for five more minutes, she leaned back and kicked his bed with one booted foot, "Wake Up!"

Honker jerked and mumbled, fumbling around for his glasses. When he realized that there was a dark hooded shape looming over him, he did what came natural; he tried to leap out of bed, got his webs tangled in the comforter, and fell to the floor, clacking his beak in front of a pebbled red leather boot.

"Ya done yet, Honk?" She cocked a head at him and tugged her deep hood back, revealing her masked face and familiar red hair.

Honker pulled on his glasses finally and blinked upwards at her, "Gosalyn?"

"Duh, who else could get in here unnoticed?"

"What the heck is all the screaming about?"

Pfft pfft pfft pfft…

Tankard H Muddlefoot found himself pinned to the now-open bedroom door by four crossbow bolts before he had even seen the newest masked weirdo draw something from beneath her all-encompassing blood red cloak.

Her voice dropped an octave and she glared at the unwanted intruder, compact crossbow still poised at him, but now somewhat lower and a bit to the right, "You didn't see anything, scumbag. Got it?"

Tank freed himself by ripping his night clothes off at the arrow-points and falling all over himself to get the heck away from the heavily armed weirdo before she decided to piece something he was more attached to than his Iron Dukken concert shirt.

"Wow…" Honker mumbled as he watched his older brother take off like a goose with his tail on fire. Then he looked up, since the act of drawing her crossbow had caused Gosalyn's disguise to slide back, revealing the leather bodysuit and gear harnesses beneath the cloak. "Whoa… serious gear! Where did you get it Gosalyn?"

"I know, way wicked huh?" the teen's voice returned to its normal half-husky-half-squeaky tone as she spun and holstered her crossbow with a click, "Morgana totally hooked me up!"

By way of demonstration, she gave her shoulders a flick, kicking the cloak fully back and revealing the long bow strung loosely over her other arm. "I got all my trick arrows, plus places to hold ropes, and smoke capsules, zip cuffs, my iDuck, the works!"

Honker took it all in through his thick lenses and nodded in agreement. It was a fit-out worthy of Batdog or Darkwing Duck himself.

It took him a moment longer to realize his next question, seeing as it was still just past dawn after a night spent nearly getting killed by lobster mobsters and then chewed out by Mister Mallard. "Why?"

"Too strike fear into the hearts of evil doers everywhere!" Gos affected a goofy eerie-sounding voice as she flipped the hood up, sinking her face into shadows.

Honker scratched his head for a moment at that in obvious confusion. "Like… for the bounty money?"

"Yeah! Geeze Honker, keep up with the group!" she jeered at her besty and shook her head, turning to yank the crossbow bolts out of the door one at a time, and boy were they in there hard! "Turns out Dad's not a total dope… all the costumes and spooky entrances and dropping on top of someone with a grapple hook actually serves a purpose."

Honker sniffed through his usual morning stuffy nose and nodded at that, "S- So, if Morgana gave it to you is there some sort of magical incantation to change back?"

Honker had only the most general understanding of the magic that Mister Mallard's girlfriend used. He knew that it had something to do with complex mathematics and the interactions of various fouls smelling chemical concoctions and magical words, but his ability to peer deeper into the workings of mysticism pretty much stopped there. He was a goose of science, not spells.

"Huh, you know, that's a good question… I didn't think to ask." Gos tossed back the hood because while she wasn't getting hot inside it, just as Morgana had promised, it was pretty cumbersome the way it hung down across her bill.

She struck a few theatrical poses and uttered the few magical words she had picked up over the years to no effect. "Huh… guess not."

She then proceeded to yank down the zipper on the neck without further consideration just to make sure it would actually come off her at all, since not all of Morgana's spells worked out as planned.

"Gosalyn!" Honker blushed wildly in embarrassment and quickly averted his eyes.

"What? It's just the tape I had on last night…" the redheaded Miss Mallard was honestly a bit surprised that she had not also been gifted with any kind of magical undergarments, and her chest was still bound down with the athletic tape she had put on under her hockey jersey last night when they planned on going after the bikers.

She looked up to see Honker looking anywhere but at her and scratched her head in confusion. "What? It's not like you never saw me in a bra before Honk…"

Honker just blushed harder and kept his weak eyes resolutely closed, "Y- You're not wearing a bra."

The tomboy looked down at the open front of the leather jumpsuit again, not understanding what the problem was, "Well, mine are getting worn out! And you know how dad is about taking me clothes shopping any more… Ugh!"

Honker sighed hard. Sometimes he wondered if his best friend of the past seven years even realized that she was a girl.

Speaking of his mother… "You know my mom would take you shopping any time you asked, right?"

"Eyurgh! Gag me with a spoon! The last time I went shopping with your mom I had to… well let's not go there… me and pink don't mix." The redhead shook her head resolutely and shivered.

Seeing that, for whatever reason, she was making Honker uncomfortable, she zipped her jumpsuit back up and snorted, "There, you can look now."

The young gander looked back finally and let go a small sigh of relief. Shaking off the last waves of embarrassment he gave the outfit a more clinical examination though his slightly fogged glasses. The fog prompted a question, "Isn't that… hot inside?"

Quiverwing Quack looked over herself and shook her head. She realized she _should_ at least have a little sheen of sweat on her forehead and under her tape, since this was a full body leather suit after all, but… "Nope, Morgana said she enchanted it so I'd never be too hot or cold."

"Hmmm, should come in handy in case Isis Vanderchill ever breaks out of jail," Honker nodded and took off his thick glasses to defog them.

"Yeah, never need faux fur the way dad does," she snorted and rolled her eyes at the way the egotistical duck had numerous versions of his four button blazer, including one specifically outfitted for 'arctic operations.' "Oh Hey! Morgna asked if you thought you'd want to be the Arrow Kid again! Maybe she can come up with something for you too?!"

"Huh?" Honker was momentarily taken aback at Gosalyn's sudden eruption of enthusiasm.

"You know… sidekick? Arrow helmet? Carry the quiver around?" She looked down at her thigh where the quiver was fastened and suddenly reconsidered that, "Oh yeah, it's attached now and I'm not three foot tall any more, don't need someone to carry it around for me…"

Honker nodded in agreement with that sentiment. "Plus, I'm two months older than you… Maybe I really shouldn't be called _the kid_ anything either."

The two of them sat on Honker's bed and pondered that for a good long while. Then they heard footsteps coming up the stairs.

"Oh crud, it's mom!" Honker sniffled. "Either she'll think you're some girl who snuck into my room, or she'll think you want to hurt me like Ammonia Pine did!"

"Oh please!" Gosalyn rolled her emerald eyes derisively "What girl would sneak into _your_ room?"

"You did!" He nearly shouted at her in frustration, as well as irritation at her estimates of his ability to attract the fairer sex.

"Yeah but that's different!" she blew a raspberry at him, "Still, better make myself scare. If she does recognize me, it might finally blow dad's cover."

Quiverwing rolled backwards and somersaulted off the backside of the bed. As she did so, she grabbed her longbow from the floor and yanked her pulley arrow out, notching it into place. By the time she was upright again, she'd used the upper leaf of the bow to open the window and let fly, all in one fluid motion, vanishing into the burgeoning dawn just as Honker's bedroom door opened.

"Oh, you're awake… I thought you might still be asleep dear," Binkie Muddlefoot cooed as she came into the room, "And your window's open too? Didn't you get chilly overnight dear?"

Honker's teenaged brain was already reeling from his best friend putting him through so many emotions this early in the morning, so he just fell backwards, insensate, when his mother asked him why there were scraps of Tank's clothes on his bedroom floor and holes in his door.

**_-DwD-_**

"What a simpering, indolent, utterly plebian concern…" The whispered cursing seemed to come from nowhere. "He lacks the intestinal fortitude to grasp the true roots tragedy and pathos. Pathetic."

As Darkwing snoozed on the single twin bed left over in the tower from his long-gone single solo heroing days before he had ever crossed paths with Gosalyn Waddlemeyer or Taurus Bulba or Launchpad McQuack; in the shadows something was moving and slithering.

"Still, all of that is completely irrelevant to my current plight. I am wondrously liberated from that insidious gulag inside of that Suburban Haven of Unusual Spy Hegemonies; I still need to find someone who can reconstitute me… I obviously can't accomplish anything in my current form."

A smear made up of red and black slowly oozed and shifted its way across the floor in the shadows of the upper deck.

"Blast it all! In this impotent incoherent form merely traveling is an insurmountable obstacle! Darn it darn it darn it…" A buzzing interrupted the stain's diatribe. It turned its attention, in whatever way it was even able to pay attention to the outside world with no eyes or ears, to the buzzing.

The annoying, insipient buzzing turned out to be the same miniscule flying toy monoplane which had signaled its freedom the first time.

"OW!" Darkwing sat up when he was once again stabbed in the skull by the flashquack.

"Ya know," He considered the toy replica of the Thunderquack and rubbed the back of his head, "If they're going to start using this thing again, maybe I better get Honker to recalibrate it. It's no better at Landings than Launchpad is."

The smear of red and black ink which had once been redacts and top secret stamps and part of a photo knew this was its chance. That infernal trogoladitic duck would be on the move because of that kitsch communicator, and that meant that it could be on the move too, far faster than its own sluggish slitherings could suece out.

The stain was fortunate when Darkwing came up to the computer pedestal to check in on the message via the flash quack, and quickly attached itself to the underpinnings of his bourgeois cape.

"Director Grizzlikov? Twice in one week? You're on a roll!" Darkwing addressed the big screen as he turned off the flashquack.

"Yes," The big bear gave an irritable snort on screen. "Much as it pains me to admit… we've had an escape tent from our level B holding facility."

"Level B?"

"Da… is where we are to be holding super-powered villains who are dangerous to themselves and otters. Was set up after Quackwerks prison deals were suspended and paroled supervillains were to be reincarnated."

"Reincarcerated."

"Da, is what I am saying. Reincorporated."

Darkwing clapped a hand to his face and tried not to sigh audibly, "So, who escaped?"

"Maximum security terrarium number 207z… Camille Sanderson, Class B ship shafter." The officious bear read from his tablet.

"Shape shifter," Darkwing automatically corrected. "Waitaminute… terrarium…? Camille the Chameleon?"

"Da. This is person who freed self and others. Escaped by imitating medical personnel responding after escape attempt injured guardlinks."

Darkwing shook his head as he tugged up his fedora, dusting it in a self-deprecating manner, "And you need me because I'm the only person to ever catch her."

"No!" the director of S.H.U.S.H. barked irritably, "We are needink you to contact Honker Muddlefoot. He is person who understands Chameleon Camille body to detect her reliably before she leaves area."

"Honker?" DW deflated noticeably, "You want _me_ to call Honker _Muddlefoot_ for you? You never hear of a phonebook, Grizz old grizz? Or maybe try friending him on Facequack?"

"Just to be contacting boy," Grizzlikov growled loud enough to vibrate the cabinet containing the computer terminal. "S.H.U.S.H. will be handlink the rest."

The screen winked out leaving Darkwing Duck to stew over once again being S.H.U.S.H.'s messenger mallard. With a sigh, he doffed his fedora and spun to go down to the secret passage back to the house. No reason to trot out the Rat Catcher and ride it across town in broad daylight if all he had to do was ask Honker to call Grizzlikov and Bellum.

The dark smear of ink and paint clinging to the tail of Darkwing's comical affectations considered this. Camille the Chameleon, a shape shifter… this could prove to be somewhat catechizing indeed…

* * *

_AN: So the villain(s) finally make their presence known to the reader… _

**_READ, REVIEW, RECCOMEND!_**


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